Rudd for talks on French plan to move Calais migrant checks to UK
HOME Secretary Amber Rudd is to travel to Paris to meet her French counterpart today amid growing fears that the French could axe British border controls in Calais, which would transfer the so-called Jungle camp of refugees to Dover.
Ms Rudd is due to discuss security with Bernard Cazeneuve, the French interior minister, during the scheduled trip, which is her first official overseas engagement since taking up the post.
It comes after a growing number of prominent French politicians have warned that France might tear up the deal which allows British border checks to be carried out in Calais unless radical changes are made. Xavier Bertrand, president of the Hauts-de-France Nord Pas De Calais-Picardie region which includes Calais, said he wanted a “new treatment” for asylum seekers trying to get to Britain from France.
He said he wanted migrants hoping to claim asylum in the UK would be able to do so at a “hotspot” in France; similar to the system in Greece and Italy. Those who failed would be deported directly to their country of origin.
“If the British Government don’t want to open this discussion, we will tell you the Touquet Agreement is over,” added Mr Bertrand.
Under the Treaty of Le Touquet, British immigration officials check passports in Calais and their French counterparts do the same in Dover. But the sprawling Calais migrant camp, where thousands live in filthy conditions and each night try to smuggle themselves across the Channel on board lorries heading for Britain, has become the source of resentment among the French.
Nicolas Sarkozy, the former French leader who is running for his party’s nomination for the presidency, has called for controls to be shifted to Britain.
John Vine, the former independent inspector of borders and immigration, explained that France and Britain devised the treaty to deal with the previous refugee camp at Sangatte.
“If this arrangement were to end, one of the biggest impacts on us would be potentially a rise in the number of people coming to Britain to claim asylum – the danger of changing the arrangement for them is that it will encourage, potentially, more people to travel through France if they feel it is easier to get to Britain.”
He added: “The arrangement benefits Britain enormously at the moment, so any diminution of the arrangement would have an impact on border control and asylum policy.”
Sir Peter Ricketts, the former British ambassador to Paris, said applying the “hotspot” principle would attract even more refugees trying to get to Britain. So it wouldn’t help the French deal with the problem of thousands of people in Calais. It would make it worse.”